Georgia

[flea]

In the midst of my real happiness last night about Obama's victory, I was nagged by the numbers we were seeing from Georgia. The national media called the state for McCain very early, and when I stopped looking at the internets at about 11pm the results were showing 60% McCain/40% Obama. I always thought it was a long shot that Obama could take Georgia, but I thought it had to be closer than THAT, especially with the demographics we'd seen in early voting (heavily female and black). I started to wonder if the early voting numbers were not being reported - fully or even at all - in the returns we were seeing in the press.

This morning, it looks like I was right. The New York Times is now showing GA as only 52.6% McCain, and the Atlanta Journal Constitution says that as of 7:30 this morning there may be 600,000 votes still uncounted, all early, majority heavily Democratic counties. And the AJC is saying Chambliss doesn't have the 50% majority he would need to prevent a runoff for his senate seat.

I'm surprised at how quickly I got invested in Georgia. I'm glad it's been close.

On Obama: I think he truly believes in the things he said last night, and good luck to him, and us. Leadership: such a novel thing in a president.

Comments

[gingerk.livejournal.com]

It's so good to have you invested in my state. We should find another occasion to celebrate.

Many of the local media were not calling either election, because those 60/40 figures were without a lot of results from metro Atlanta, Columbus and Savannah, the places with the most potential Democratic votes. I wish it had been closer, but even hours of "too close to call" is a big step. Perhaps we are a bit closer to the ideas of the state motto: "Wisdom, Justice, and Moderation."

Amendment 1, the forest preservation amendment, passed with a whopping majority, and Amendment 3, a cynical ploy to let developers tax citizens, failed. Yay!